Thanks to the bequests and donations of numerous industrial and private sponsors, each year the F.R.S.-FNRS awards several scientific prizes. The most important ones are the F.R.S.-FNRS Quinquennial Prizes (Excellence Prize), which are awarded every five years, in all the scientific disciplines.

Numerous other Prizes are awarded through the F.R.S.-FNRS, as well as in biomedical sciences and in technological sciences or in social sciences. The majority of these Prizes are recurrent, and calls are launched annually, or every two or three years.